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SEYMOUR  DURST 


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Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


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THE  DELEGATES  TO  EDINBURGH 


COL.  ANDREW  D.  I5AIRD 

VICE-PRESIDENT 


MR.  CORNELIUS  H.  TIEBOUT 

VICE-PRESIDENT 


A 


i  ■ 


1 


1  A 


MR.  WILLIAM  F.  BURNS 

CASHIER 


MR.  HERBERT  F.  GUNNISON 

TRUSTEE 


The  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank 


OFFICERS 


Vice-Presidents 


Ezra  B.  Tuttle,  President 

Andrew  D.  Baird 

Cornelius  H.  Tiebout 

Samuel  M.  Meeker,  Secretary 

William  F.  Burns,  Cashier 

Charles  T.  Pasfield  I   1    .      M  ^    7  . 
tt*        \  t  r  Assistant  Cashiers 

Victor  A.  Lersner  ' 


TRUSTEES 


Ezra  B.  Tuttle 
Brainard  G.  Latimer 

Andrew  D.  Baird 
Cornelius  H.  Tiebout 
Samuel  M.  Meeker 
James  R.  Howe 
John  V.  Jewell 
James  V.  Post 


James  F.  Bendernagel 
Edward  T.  Horwill 
Alfred  Romer 
Welding  Ring 
Herbert  F.  Gunnison 
Francis  W.  Young 

Paul  E.  Bonner 
Edward  E.  Pearce 


COUNSEL 
S.  M.  &  D.  E.  Meeker 


THE  WILLIAM SBURGH   SAVING  BANK 


MR.  EZRA  B.  TUTTLE 

PRESIDENT 


By 

CHARLES  T.  GREENE 


COPYRIGHT  APPLIED  FOR,  1910 
WILLIAMS  BURGH  SAVINGS  BANK  OF  BROOKLYN 
N.  YM  U.  S.  A. 


What  We  Owe  to  Daniel  Defoe. 


OF  course,  all  of  us  know  who  Robinson  Crusoe  was, 
and  all  of  us  have  read  or  have  heard  of  the  wonder- 
ful adventures  he  encountered  during  his  seafaring 
life.    But  how  many  of  us  know  who  Crusoe's  father  was? 

If  you  have  been  delighted  with  the  tale  of  Crusoe's  excit- 
ing career,  you  cannot  help  but  be  pleased  with  this  little 
biography  of  Crusoe's  father,  for  that  gentleman's  career  was 
quite  as  exciting  as  his  son's. 

Now,  this  little  booklet  is  not  written  in  imitation  of  The 
Life  And  Surprising  Adventures  of  Robinson  Crusoe.  Many 
have  tried  to  imitate  that  fascinating  romance  and  failed  ere 
this.  In  fact,  this  is  not  a  romance  at  all;  but  a  chronicle 
of  hard,  cold  facts.  And  you  know  that  facts  are  often 
stranger  and  certainly  should  be  more  edifying  than  fiction. 

Crusoe's  father — not  his  story-book  father,  but  his  real 
father — was  Daniel  Defoe.  Defoe  it  was,  whose  fertile 
imagination  conceived  all  the  wonderful  experiences  and  the 
hair-breadth  escapes  of  Crusoe,  so  that  it  may  truthfully  be 
said  that  he  was  the  real  father  of  the  man  who  has  these 
many  years  been  every  school-boy's  hero. 

Defoe  was  born  in  1 66 1 — practically  250  years  ago.  He 
was  an  Englishman  and  many  of  his  enemies  said  that  his 
right  name  was  Foe  and  that  he  put  the  De  in  front  of  it 
because  he  was  ashamed  of  his  mother  country.  But  that  was 
a  libel,  for  Defoe  served  his  country  better  than  he  served 
himself  or  was  served  by  it.  When  a  young  man  he  embarked 
in  business  as  a  hosiery  merchant  and  later  as  a  tile  merchant; 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


but  both  enterprises  failed.  He  lost  a  great  deal  of  money, 
but  later  was  able  to  pay  all  his  bills  as  any  honorable  man 
should. 

After  his  disastrous  adventures  in  business,  he  turned  his 
attention  to  writing  tracts  and  articles  for  the  newspapers  of 
London,  and  because  in  one  tract  he  spoke  his  mind  too  freely, 
he  was  promptly  arrested  and  thrown  into  prison.  Although 
this  was  the  climax  of  the  evils  that  befel  him,  he  did  not  allow 
it  to  embitter  his  thoughts.  Nor  did  he  hold  any  grudge 
against  the  authorities  for  his  sad  estate.  Indeed,  his  forced 
retirement  behind  prison  walls  gave  him  opportunity  to  do 
his  sovereign  a  real  service,  and,  what  is  more  to  the  point  of 
this  story,  an  inestimable  service  to  millions  of  his  fellow- 
creatures  who  have  come  after  him. 

If  You  Read  a  Little  Further  You  Will 
Find  Something  to  Interest  You. 

That  means  that  he  has  been  of  service  to  yon.  But  how? 
you  may  ask.    Read  a  little  further  and  you  shall  learn ! 

We  are  indebted  to  Defoe  for  many  things  besides  the  story 
of  Robinson  Crusoe.  While  that  may  be  the  best  known  of 
the  products  of  his  brain,  it  has  not  produced  the  material 
advantages  to  us  that  some  of  his  other  things  have.  For 
instance,  it  was  he  who  first  advocated  the  establishment  of 
academies  for  women.  In  his  day,  a  great  many  men  did  not 
believe  in  educating  women,  just  as  many  men  to-day  do  not 
believe  that  women  should  be  allowed  to  vote. 


WILLIAM  SBURGH    SAYINGS  RANK 

VIEW     FROM     WIIXIAMSBURGH  BRIDGE 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


But  Defoe  was  ahead  of  his  time  and  were  he  alive  to-day 
he  would  still  be  ahead.  On  the  question  of  women's  rights, 
Defoe  wrote : 

"I  have  often  thought  of  it  as  one  of  the  barbarous  customs 
in  the  world,  considering  us  as  a  civilized  and  a  Christian 
country,  that  we  deny  the  advantages  of  learning  to  women. 
We  reproach  the  sex  every  day  with  folly  and  impertinence, 
while  I  am  confident  had  they  the  advantages  of  education 
equal  to  us,  they  would  be  guilty  of  less  than  ourselves." 

We  now  have  schools  and  colleges  exclusively  for  girls  and 
young  women,  and  every  girl  in  the  Girls'  High  School  and 
every  young  woman  student  in  Packer,  Smith,  Vassar  and 
Wellesley  and  Bryn  Mawr  should  pay  homage  to  Defoe. 
Men  should,  too,  for  the  schools  have  given  us  better 
mothers;  better  sisters,  better  sweethearts  and  better  wives. 

Defoe  also  was  the  first  to  propose  that  the  bankruptcy  laws 
be  modified,  and  now  no  one  anywhere  can  be  thrown  into 
prison  for  debt.  He  was  the  original  "good  roads"  man;  he 
drew  up  a  scheme  for  the  establishment  of  the  first  mutual 
marine  insurance  society,  for  a  friendly  society,  and  what  is 
of  especial  interest  to  you,  he  was  the  first  to  suggest  the 
establishment  of  a  Savings  Bank. 

Defoe's  Scheme  to  Banish  Pauperism. 

In  1689,  when  he  was  scarcely  28  years  old,  Defoe  drafted 
a  scheme  for  the  establishment  of  a  pension  office  which,  in 
organization  and  purpose,  was  to  be  similar  to  our  mutual 
savings  banks,  with  this  difference,  that  the  pension  office 
was  to  be  run  by  the  Government. 


The  pension  office  of  Defoe  was  to  be  a  public  benefaction, 
while  our  savings  banks  of  to-day  are  private  benefactions. 
His  scheme  was  to  have  all  the  wage-earning  citizens  of  a  com- 
munity to  pool  a  certain  amount  of  their  weekly  or  monthly 
earnings  and  place  the  pool  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government. 
The  latter  was  to  pay  interest,  and  any  member  of  the  pool 
upon  proper  claim  could  draw  out  funds  proportionate  to  his 
deposits  whenever  he  needed  to  tide  over  an  emergency.  Thus, 
if  he  fell  sick,  or  became  disabled  in  the  pursuit  of  his  calling, 
he  could  apply  for  a  pension,  and  when  he  got  old  he  could 
retire  from  his  labors  and  live  on  the  income  from  his  savings. 

"I  desire,"  said  Defoe,  in  arguing  for  this  scheme,  "any 
man  to  consider  the  present  state  of  this  Kingdom,  and  tell 
me  if  all  the  people  of  England,  old  and  young,  rich  and  poor, 
were  to  pay  into  one  common  bank  four  shillings  per  annum 
a  head,  and  that  four  shillings  duly  and  honestly  managed, 
whether  the  overplus  would  not  in  all  probability  maintain  all 
that  should  be  poor,  and  forever  banish  beggary  and  poverty 
out  of  the  kingdom?" 

The  idea  of  Defoe's  pension  office  to  many  of  us  may  at 
first  seem  very  remote  from  the  idea  upon  which  a  savings 
bank  is  founded;  but  if  we  pause  a  moment  to  think,  we  shall 
soon  come  to  see  that  a  savings  bank  is  not  very  different 
from  such  a  pension  office  after  all. 

Indeed,  the  purpose  of  the  organizers  of  the  New  York 
Institution  for  Savings,  which  was  the  first  savings  bank  estab- 
lished in  this  country,  was  to  banish  pauperism.  They  called 
their  organization  at  first  "An  Association  for  the  Banishment 
of  Pauperism." 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


Of  course,  from  our  modern  savings  banks  all  the  features 
of  Defoe's  pension  office  scheme  have  been  eliminated  except 
that  which  insures  against  penury  and  want  in  old  age. 

The  Germans  Were  the  First  to 
Adopt  the  Scheme. 

The  people  were  not  as  thrifty  or  as  saving  in  Defoe's  day 
as  they  are  now,  and  no  one  cared  to  take  up  his  suggestion  to 
establish  pension  offices  or  friendly  societies  until  long  after 
his  death.  In  fact,  it  was  not  until  1765  that  the  original 
ancestor  of  our  modern  savings  banks  was  set  up.  The 
Germans  saw  virtue  in  Defoe's  scheme,  and  so  after  thinking 
about  it  for  fifty  years  or  so,  they  established  a  savings  bank 
in  Brunswick.  This  one  proved  so  successful  that  others 
sprang  up  in  other  parts  of  Germany  and  in  Switzerland; 
but  it  was  not  until  18  10  that  a  savings  bank  was  actually 
put  into  operation  in  Great  Britain. 

It  is  true  that  in  1797  Jeremy  Bentham  had  revived  Defoe's 
scheme  and,  with  some  improvements,  proposed  the  establish- 
ment of  frugality  banks;  but  it  was  not  until  the  Rev.  Henry 
Duncan,  of  Ruthwell,  Scotland,  became  interested  in  the  sav- 
ings bank  movement  in  1 8 10  that  the  English-speaking  people 
were  afforded  a  safe  place  in  which  to  invest  their  small  sav- 
ings, and  to  pile  up  a  surplus  against  the  proverbial  rainy  day. 

By  the  year  1  8  1  7,  the  movement  had  spread  so  rapidly  and 
so  many  institutions  had  been  set  up  that  the  British  Parlia- 
ment passed  laws  to  encourage  the  further  development  of  fhe 
movement. 


AN  INTERIOR  VIEW 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


The  Beginning  of  Savings  Banks 
in  the  United  States. 

The  United  States  was  not  far  behind  Great  Britain  in 
recognizing  the  value  of  savings  banks,  and  in  1 8  1 6  the  first 
American  savings  bank  was  organized  in  New  York  City, 
though  it  seems  that  one  had  been  actually  opened  in  Phila- 
delphia before  the  New  York  institution  was  really  under 
way.  The  first  incorporated  savings  bank  was  opened  in 
Boston  during  the  same  year. 

Since  that  year  the  savings  bank  movement  in  the  United 
States  has  grown  to  tremendous  proportions.  In  1820,  four 
years  after  the  founding  of  the  first  bank,  there  were  but  ten 
in  the  entire  country.  The  depositors  in  these  ten  banks  num- 
bered but  8,635,  and  the  deposits  to  but  scarcely  more  than  a 
million  dollars.  To-day,  according  to  the  latest  report  of  the 
United  States  Monetary  Commisson,  there  are  18,245  insti- 
tutions in  the  country  that  solicit  savings  accounts;  14,894,696 
savings  depositors,  and  $5,678,735,379  in  savings  deposits. 

The  growth  of  the  savings  bank  movement  in  the  rest  of 
the  world  is  also  quite  as  remarkable.  In  all  countries  outside 
of  the  United  States  there  are  95,524,331  depositors  whose 
savings  aggregate  $9,710,936,635,  and  this  vast  sum 
added  to  that  representing  the  total  savings  of  this  country 
makes  a  still  greater  and  more  incomprehensible  sum — 
$15,389,672,014.  The  total  number  of  depositors  in  the 
world  is  computed  at  110,419,027. 


Are  yon  one  of  these? 


The  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank  of  Brooklyn 


Our  Savings  Are  Our  Best  Friend. 

BUT  let  us  get  down  to  particulars.  Let  us  take  the 
growth  and  development  of  the  strongest  savings  bank 
in  the  world  for  an  example.  Glittering  generalities 
are  often  like  grand  stand  plays;  they  fail  of  their 
purpose.  Our  purpose  is  to  convince  you  that  there  is  not  a 
safer  place  in  the  world  in  which  to  put  your  money  than  a 
savings  bank,  and  the  best  savings  bank  to  put  your  money 
in  is  necessarily  the  strongest. 

Why  is  a  savings  bank  the  safest  place  in  the  world  to  place 
your  savings  in? 

Because  it  has  nothing  to  do  with  speculation  nor  get-rich- 
quick  schemes. 

Man  is  the  worst  of  all  God's  creatures  to  shift  for  himself. 
Xo  other  animal  is  ever  actually  starved  to  death.  Nature 
without  has  provided  them  both  food  and  clothes,  and  Nature 
within  has  placed  an  instinct  that  never  fails  to  direct  them  to 
proper  means  for  a  supply;  but  man  must  either  work  or 
starve,  slave  or  die.  He  has  indeed  reason  given  him  to 
direct  him,  and  few  who  follow  the  dictates  of  reason  come 
to  such  unhappy  straits;  but  when,  by  the  errors  of  a  man's 
youth,  he  has  reduced  himself  to  such  a  degree  of  distress  as 
to  be  absolutely  without  three  things;  money,  friends  and 
health,  he  dies  in  a  ditch  or  in  some  worse  place. 

Ten  thousand  ways  there  are  to  bring  a  man  to  this,  and 
but  few  to  bring  him  out  again. 


Robinson  Crusoe  s  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


If  you  resort  to  a  system  of  saving  your  pennies  when 
young,  you  may  avoid  the  ditch  or  worse  place,  or  if  you 
stumble  into  the  ditch,  you  may  get  out  of  it  again  by  com- 
mencing to  save  forthwith. 

But  beware  of  speculation  and  shortcuts  to  millions! 

The  Savings  Bank  Law  of  New  York 
is  the  Best  Law  Ever  Devised. 

In  these  days,  especially  since  the  light  of  publicity  has 
been  thrown  upon  so  many  methods  of  finance  and  investment 
resulting  in  disclosures  that  have  been  anything  but  indicative 
of  the  inherent  honesty  of  human  nature,  it  is  exceptional  that 
men  will  trust  even  a  small  sum  to  another.  But  despite  these 
sad  discoveries  and  the  sadder  experience  of  "lambs"  who 
have  been  shorn,  confidence  in  savings  banks  has  remained 
undisturbed — and  deservedly  so. 

The  law  of  the  State  of  New  York  governing  the  adminis- 
tration of  savings  banks  is  the  best  law  that  has  ever  been 
devised.  It  is  admittedly  a  model  for  all  other  states  to 
follow  in  the  fashioning  of  similar  laws.  The  law  is  so  com- 
prehensive that  it  covers  every  form  of  investment  and  antici- 
pates every  ingenuity  of  men  anxious  to  reap  greater  returns 
without  stopping  to  consider  the  greater  risk. 

The  savings  banks  of  New  York  State  are  mutual  institu- 
tions. The  depositors  stand  in  the  same  relation  to  the 
trustees  as  stockholders  in  a  stock  corporation  stand  to  their 
directors.    They  are  the  recipients  of  the  profits  made  by  the 


ROTUNDA   FOR  DEPOSITORS 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


hanks  in  the  shape  of  compounded  interest.  Their  trustees 
work  absolutely  for  nothing;  they  are  not  even  allowed  to 
collect  the  ordinary  fees  for  attending  meetings.  Their 
reward  is  solely  in  that  self-satisfaction  which  comes  to  any 
man  who  is  engaged  in  philanthropic  work. 

The  officers  and  clerks  are  the  only  ones  aside  from  the 
depositors  who  derive  an  income  from  their  operation.  The 
aggregate  salaries  paid  to  savings  bank  officials  and  clerks 
during  the  year  1909  in  the  twenty-one  savings  banks  of 
Brooklyn  amounted  to  but  $497,769.  This  is  a  comparatively 
insignificant  amount  when  compared  with  the  total  amount  of 
money  which  is  placed  in  their  care — $228,029,166,  accord- 
ing to  the  last  official  report  of  the  State  Banking  Department. 

A  Savings  Bank  Does  Not  Hoard 
Money,  But  Invests  It. 

You  may  have  the  idea  that  the  money  you  place  in  savings 
banks  is  hoarded  up  behind  the  ponderous  bolted  doors  of  the 
bank  vaults.  While  a  certain  percentage  is  kept  in  the  vaults 
to  meet  the  average  requirements  of  depositors  who  desire  to 
withdraw  their  money,  the  bulk  of  deposits  of  savings  banks 
is  invested  in  bonds  and  mortgages.  The  state  law  specifies 
the  kind  of  bonds  that  savings  banks  may  buy  and  limits  the 
amount  of  money  they  can  invest  in  mortgages.  With  the 
exception  of  some  of  the  money  invested  in  bonds  of  other 
states  and  cities  and  in  selected  railroad  corporations,  the 
funds  of  the  Brooklyn  and  other  savings  banks  are  invested  in 
properties  and  activities  in  their  immediate  neighborhoods. 


The  Willi  am  sburgh  Savings  Rank  of  Brooklyn 


Savings  banks  thus  serve  two  purposes — to  conserve  and 
invest  profitably  the  funds  of  the  man  or  the  woman  who 
works  for  wages,  and  to  lend  aid  in  the  development  of  the 
communities  in  which  they  have  been  established.  Thus  every 
savings  bank  depositor  may  feel  a  certain  sense  of  pride  in  his 
contemplation  of  the  rapid  increase  of  homes  and  other  struc- 
tures in  his  own  city.  For,  it  is  by  his  aid  alone  that  this 
development  has  been  made  possible. 

But  we  are  still  talking  in  general  terms;  now  for  the  par- 
ticular thing  which  the  author  of  this  little  booklet  desires  to 
bring  to  your  attention! 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


The  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank  is  the 
Strongest  in  America. 

DO  you  know  the  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank?    It  is 
in  the  interest  of  this  bank  that  this  little  booklet 
has   been   written.     The   Williamsburgh  Savings 
Bank  is  one  of  the  strongest  savings  banks  in  the 
world.    It  is  the  strongest  because  the  proportion  between 
its  total  resources  and  its  surplus  is  represented  by  a  greater 
percentage  than  that  of  any  other  bank. 

The  surplus  of  a  savings  bank  is  the  amount  of  money 
which  it  has  in  excess  of  the  total  amount  it  owes  to  depositors. 
Thus,  if  the  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank  were  to  pay  all  its 
debts  to-day  it  would  have  left  more  than  13  per  cent,  of 
its  total  resources.  In  other  words,  if  all  of  its  depositors 
demanded  their  money,  the  bank  could  pay  them  and  still 
have  $7,172,738  left. 

No  other  savings  bank  in  America  has  a  greater  percentage 
of  surplus  than  the  Williamsburgh. 

It  has  taken  a  long  while  to  pile  up  this  amount  of  money 
and  as  it  represents,  in  a  way,  a  surety  for  the  liquidation  of 
all  debts  at  one  hundred  cents  on  the  dollar,  it  is  to  the  advan- 
tage of  any  one  who  is  seeking  a  place  to  put  his  savings  to 
choose  an  old  bank. 


THE    VATLT    IX    MAIN  P.UILDING 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


Philanthropists  Organized  the  Williamsburgh 
Savings  Bank. 

The  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank  was  organized  in  185  i 
by  a  number  of  prominent  citizens  of  the  then  city  of  Will- 
iamsburgh. These  citizens  were  philanthropists  and  looked 
after  the  newly  formed  bank  without  compensation.  The  first 
home  of  the  bank  was  the  basement  of  a  church  on  the  corner 
of  South  Third  and  Fourth  Streets,  and  in  this  respect  was 
launched  under  auspices  similar  to  that  of  the  first  savings 
bank  of  Scotland.  For  the  first  two  years  of  its  existence 
business  was  conducted  in  this  church  basement  and  deposits 
received  every  Monday,  Wednesday  and  Saturday  afternoon. 
There  were  no  cashiers,  tellers  or  clerks  in  those  days.  The 
trustees  of  the  bank  themselves  attended  to  all  the  affairs  of 
the  institution. 

The  necessary  expenses  of  opening,  including  the  cost  of 
furniture,  books  and  stationery,  advertising,  rent,  fuel  and 
other  current  expenses,  were  all  earned  and  liquidated  from 
the  profits  of  the  first  eighteen  months  of  operation,  and  in 
addition  to  this,  the  trustees  were  able  to  credit  to  depositors 
their  regular  interest  at  the  rate  of  six  per  cent,  per  annum. 

During  the  third  year  of  the  bank's  existence,  the  trustees 
erected  a  banking  house  at  the  corner  of  South  Third  Street 
and  Bedford  Avenue  and  moved  into  it  on  the  thirtieth  day  of 
January,  1854.  This  building  is  still  standing  and  now  houses 
the  Williamsburgh  Hospital.  The  cost  of  the  ground  and 
building  was  earned,  over  and  above  the  interest  credited  to 
depositors,  by  the  end  of  the  seventh  year  of  operation. 


The  Williamsburgh  Savings  Rank  of  Brooklyn 


This  structure  remained  the  home  of  the  bank  until  May 
30,  1875,  when  its  present  monumental  home  at  the  corner 
of  Driggs  Avenue  and  Broadway  was  opened  for  business. 
This  building  was  five  years  in  course  of  construction.  An 
annex  to  it,  almost  as  large  as  the  original  structure,  was 
completed  in  October,  1906.  The  enlarged  building  occupies 
a  plot  of  ground  130  by  100  feet.  It  is  surmounted  by  a 
dome  whose  graceful  curves  and  exquisitely  designed  lantern 
compare  favorably  with  those  of  the  capitol  dome  at  Wash- 
ington, with  St.  Paul's  in  London  and  St.  Peter's  in  Rome. 

The  interior  of  the  structure  is  spacious  and  palatial.  The 
interior  of  the  dome  is  especially  elaborate  in  design.  The 
apex  of  it  is  1 10  feet  above  the  level  of  the  marble  floor. 

The  History  of  the  Williamsburgh  Savings 
Bank  is  the  History  of  Success. 

The  history  of  the  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank  is  the 
history  of  the  success  that  comes  to  those  who  have  a  high 
purpose  in  view  and  who  go  about  to  achieve  that  purpose 
in  a  manly,  upright  and  disinterested  way.  None  but  the 
foremost  men  in  the  old  city  of  Williamsburgh  and  in  the 
present  Eastern  District  of  Brooklyn  have  ever  been  identified 
with  the  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank,  and  the  confidence 
and  trust  which  the  public  has  placed  in  these  men  and  in  their 
enterprise  come  as  an  honestly  earned  and  justly  merited 
reward. 

During  its  fifty-nine  years  the  bank  has  never  once  been  in 
difficulties  or  suffered  embarrassment,  and  public  faith  in  it 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


has  never  been  shaken.  It  has  entered  into  the  life  of  the 
community,  and  by  the  aid  it  has  extended  to  home  builders 
has  done  more  than  any  one  other  agency  to  develop  the  com- 
munity round  about  it. 

The  venerable  John  Broach,  who  was  one  of  its  first 
cashiers,  wrote  in  his  annual  report  way  back  in  1868: 

"The  bank  has  made  over  800  loans  on  bonds  and  mort- 
gages amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  about  $2,500,000,  of 
which  about  $1,000,000  has  been  paid  off,  leaving  about 
$1,500,000  now  invested  in  500  mortgages  remaining  open. 

"The  loans  have  greatly  aided  in  building  up  the  district 
in  which  the  bank  is  located;  many  of  them  have  been  what 
are  termed  'building  loans,'  advanced  as  the  building  pro- 
gressed. The  amount  advanced,  however,  has  never  been 
permitted  to  exceed  one-half  the  value  of  the  property  as  it 
stood  at  the  time  the  advance  was  made. 

"In  this  manner  numerous  dwellings  and  several  churches 
and  manufactories  have  been  added  to  the  permanent  improve- 
ments of  the  eastern  district  of  this  city  through  the  instru- 
mentality of  this  bank,  while  at  the  same  time  it  has  paid 
nearly  $2,000,000  in  interest  to  depositors  upon  moneys, 
which,  if  they  had  remained  in  the  individual  possession  and 
management  of  the  persons  who  placed  them  there,  in  the 
sums  in  which  they  were  deposited,  would  probably  have 
produced  little  or  nothing  in  the  way  of  interest. 

"The  growth  of  this  bank  has  been  steady  and  almost 
unceasing,  the  year  1861,  the  first  year  of  the  Civil  War, 
being  the  only  year  in  which  the  number  of  accounts  closed 
exceeded  the  number  opened.    The  Bank  has  suffered  no 


ENTRANCE  TO  NEW  VAULT 


Robinson  Crusoe' $  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


embarrassment  at  any  time.  During  the  panics  and  revulsions 
which  have  occurred  in  business  and  financial  circles,  since 
its  organization  it  has  always  been  prepared  for  any  emer- 
gency which  has  arisen  and  has  never  made  any  sacrifice  what- 
ever to  meet  any  demands  upon  it." 

This  report  might  just  as  well  have  been  written  yesterday, 
for,  as  if  prophetic  of  the  future  when  written,  it  is  true  to- 
day, in  all  but  its  figures.  These  have  grown  wonderfully 
since  then. 

The  present  number  of  loans  outstanding  to  the  credit  of 
the  bank  is  5,1 83,  amounting  in  the  aggregate  to  $28,097,895, 
or  an  average  of  $5,421  per  single  loan.  The  present  number 
of  depositors  is  99,438  and  their  savings  total  to  $53,61 5,446. 
It  is  only  a  question  of  a  few  more  months  when  the  depositors 
will  exceed  the  one  hundred  thousand  mark. 

More  Than  12,000  New  Depositors  Put 
Money  in  the  Bank  in  1909. 

During  the  year  1909,  12,279  persons,  representing  prac- 
tically every  civilized  country  and  every  phase  of  religious 
belief,  opened  accounts  with  the  Williamsburgh  Savings 
Bank  for  the  first  time.    Were  you  one  of  them? 

Since  the  founding  of  the  bank  in  1851  the  stupendous 
sum  of  $679,573,358  has  passed  through  it.  In  other  words, 
the  total  deposits  for  the  fifty-nine  years  of  its  existence  have 
aggregated  $345,177,094,  and  the  total  withdrawals  to 
$334,396,264.  It  has  paid  out  in  interest  during  these  fifty- 
nine  years  $42,835,757. 


The  Williamsbnrgh  Savings  Bank  of  Brooklyn 


Have  yon  gotten  any  of  this  money? 

If  you  have  not,  you  are  that  much  poorer;  but  you  may 
begin  to  participate  in  the  future  distributions  of  dividends 
by  opening  an  account  of  your  own  now. 

The  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank  is  a 
Perfect  Investment  Machine. 

That  a  savings  bank,  and  the  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank 
in  particular,  is  the  most  highly  developed  investing  machine 
yet  devised  by  man  is  an  irrefutable  fact.  Greater  sums  of 
money  can  be  invested  by  savings  banks  with  a  consequent 
greater  aggregate  return  at  a  less  expense  than  by  any  other 
agency.  The  expenses  of  operating  the  Williamsburgh  Sav- 
ings Bank  for  the  year  1 909  amounted  to  $181,830.  The  rate 
of  expense  for  each  dollar  of  liabilities  was  little  more  than 
a  quarter  of  a  cent;  for  each  of  the  99,438  persons  who  had 
accounts  in  the  bank,  $1.82.  In  comparison  with  the  com- 
missions demanded  by  brokers  and  other  banks  employed  in 
the  investment  of  capital  this  rate  is  ridiculously  small  and 
inconsequential. 


Robinson  Crusoe's  Father,  the  Projector  of  Savings  Banks 


6E= 


The  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank  is  the 
Best  Public  Benevolence  in  Brooklyn. 

The  Williamsburgh  and  all  mutual  savings  banks  are 
essentially  philanthropic.  They  are  operated  for  the  sole 
benefit  of  the  depositors.  As  philanthropic  enterprises  they 
are  less  costly  and  far  more  useful  than  any  other  kind  of 
benevolence. 

The  quarter  of  a  cent  per  dollar  which  it  cost  the  Williams- 
burgh Savings  Bank  during  the  year  1909  to  receive  and 
disburse  its  $53,615,446  of  deposits  stands  out  in  bold  con- 
trast to  the  40  and  50  cents  per  dollar  it  usually  costs  to 
conduct  other  philanthropies. 

But  savings  bank  philanthropy,  while  cheaper  than  any 
other,  is  also  better  and  truer,  for  it  is  a  philanthropy  that 
teaches  people  to  help  themselves. 

It  is  the  highest  form  of  self  help  and  in  the  words  of  old 
Daniel  Defoe,  about  whom  we  talked  in  the  early  part  of 
this  booklet,  we  may  exclaim: 

"For  who,  indeed,  would  ever  pity  that  man  in  his  distress 
who,  at  the  expense  of  two  pots  of  beer  a  month,  ought  to 
have  prevented  it  and  would  not  spare  it?" 

We  have  appended  to  this  little  treatise  a  series  of  tables 
which  will  show  you  at  a  glance  the  development  and  growth 
of  the  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank.  You  should  open  an 
account  to-day.  It  is  not  necessary  that  you  live  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  bank  or  in  Brooklyn.  You  can  open  an  account  by 
mail.    Write  for  further  particulars. 


ROOM    OF   THK    HOARD   OF  TRUSTEES 


Robinson  Crusoe* s  Father,  the  Founder  of  Savings  Banks 


I. 

Table  Showing  the  Deposits  and  Drafts  of  the 
wllliamsburgh  savings  bank  by  decades. 


185  1-62 
1862-72 
I  872-82 
1882-92 
I  892-1902 
I902-I91O 

Total 


Deposits. 

$5,902,602 
26,086,072 
42,932,713 

8i,9°5,359 
86,526,574 

101,823,774 


Drafts. 

$4,404, 136« 
21,940,63  1 
39,720,115, 
78,601,717. 
86,895,609, 
102,834,056, 


$345, 1 77,094.  $334,396>264- 


II. 

Table  Showing  the  Growth  in  the  Number  of  Open 
Accounts  and  in  the  Amount  on  Deposit 
at  Ten  Year  Intervals. 


No.  of  Accounts. 

Due  Depositors. 

1862 

10,287 

$1,916,041. 

1872 

19,977 

8,941,769. 

1882 

42,459 

18,384,053. 

1 892 

71,870 

30,175,650. 

1902 

88,923 

41,254,024. 

19 10 

99,438 

53,615,446. 

The  Wtlliamsburgh  Savings  Bank  of  Brooklyn 


III. 

Table  Showing  the  Growth  in  Amount  and  the 
Percentage  of  Surplus  and  Dividends  at 
Ten  Year  Intervals. 

Dividends. 


Surplus. 

Rate 

Amount. 

Per  Cent. 

1862 

$68,325. 

3-56 

1872 

790,164. 

8.84 

1882 

1,482,527. 

8.06 

1892 

3^41,259. 

10.41 

1902 

3,631,809. 

8.80 

19 10 

7?i72.738* 

13.38 

Amount. 

Rate  Per  Cent. 

$484,796. 

6 

3,289,794. 

8 

6,398,799- 

6      and  5 

8,793.183. 

4 

11,178,063. 

3  l/2  and  4 

12,691,122. 

3  l/2  and  4 

$42,835,757.  Total. 


Newt  Accounts  for  Year 


United  States   6,930 

Germany    2,073 

Italy   851 

Russia   767 

Ireland   594 

Great  Britain   264 

Austria-Hungary  ....  450 


1909  as  to  Nationalities. 

Scandinavia    99 

Other  European  ....  154 

Asia   20 

English  Colonies  ....  72 

Sundry  Locations  ....  5 

Total   1 2,279 


15RONZE  TAl'LET 


The  Williamsburgh  Savings  Bank  of  Brookly 


THE  WILLIAMSBURGH  SAVINGS  BANK 
Brooklyn,  New  York. 

Annual  Statement,  January  i,  19 10. 

RESOURCES 


Bonds  and  Mortgages  $ 

United  States  Bonds  

New  York  State  Bonds  

Massachusetts  State  Bonds  

Bonds  of  Cities  in  this  State  

Bonds  of  Counties  in  this  State .  .  . 
Bonds  of  Towns  in  this  State.  .  .  . 
Bonds  of  Villages  in  this  State .  .  . 
Bonds  of  Cities  in  other  States.  .  . 

Railroad  Mortgage  Bonds  

Banking  House  

Other  Real  Estate  

Other  Assets  

Interest  Due  and  Accrued  

Cash   


28,097,895  .00 
1,500,000 . 00 
1,100,000 .00 
429,000 . 00 

i5>365»582.39 
63,000 .00 

18,000.00 

1 80,000 . 00 

7,569,700.00 

2,2 10,000 . 00 

250,000 .00 

4,000 . 00 

1,109 .32 

596,715.00 

3>439>456.42 


$60,824,458 . 13 


LIABILITIES 


Deposits   $53,61 5,446 . 66 

Surplus  at  par   7,209,011.47 


$60,824,458  .  13 


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